Choosing the right scheduler for your small business
Booking appointments and managing calendars are essential tasks for every service-based business. Profitability depends on keeping your schedule full and avoiding no-shows. Yet, synchronizing schedules among team members and taking appointment requests via the phone can consume a big portion of each day.
An automated scheduler for your small business is the answer. The right scheduling software for appointments will allow customers to go online 24/7 to schedule their own appointments, freeing your staff from answering the phone or playing phone tag with customers. Automated reminders and follow-ups help to reduce no-shows. And the ability to accept payment at time of booking can accelerate your cash flow.
When you’re looking for an appointment scheduler for your small business, Thryv offers a superior solution as part of a do-it-all business management platform. With Thryv, you can easily integrate online scheduling capabilities into your website and workflows, providing more convenience to delight customers while helping your staff stay more productive.
Tips to improve scheduling in your small business
When the appointments aren’t flowing in as quickly as you want, there are several things you can do to drive more customers to your appointment booking apps.
- Promote your open availability. It may sound obvious, but letting customers know that you have space in your schedule is the easiest way to fill it. Share reminders of how to book an appointment in your social posts, through buttons on your website, in the occasional email or with an SMS text message to customers who have opted in.
- Automate your follow-ups. Send an automated email or text reminder immediately after a customer has completed an appointment and then again shortly before the time they would normally return for a repeat visit. Your customers will appreciate the reminder, and your schedule will fill up faster.
- Create urgency. Approximately 40% of appointments are booked less than one day in advance.i To take advantage of this tendency, you can create urgency to nudge people who are considering booking an appointment. Create posts with language like “One final spot available this week!”, or let customers know that the first person to respond to an email can capture the last spot available tomorrow.
- Make an offer. Offer a discount, a free sample or an in-store credit for customers who book online within a certain timeframe.
A scheduler for small business from Thryv
Thryv provides all the solutions you need for managing your small business from one centralized dashboard. With tools for marketing, social media, invoicing, payments, communications, CRM, reputation management, online document storage services and credit card processing for small business, Thryv puts at your fingertips the technology you need to help your business succeed.
The Thryv platform provides scheduling software for dentists, contractors, yoga studios, pet groomers, hairstylists and any other business that runs on appointments. As a superior scheduler for small business, Thryv delivers all the tools you need to simplify appointment booking, reduce no-shows, automate reminders and accelerate cash flow.
- Customizable schedules let you configure services, times, locations, hours of operation, available staff members and more.
- Online calendars allow customers to view your availability online anytime 24/7 on any device and book or request the times that are most convenient for them.
- Automatic synchronization lets you manage your team schedules and keep calendars aligned while giving your staff as much access as they need to manage their work and client relationships.
- Automated reminders eliminate the need for manual phone calls to customers and help to prevent no-shows.
- In-app payment capabilities let customers make full or partial payments when they book an appointment, improving your cash flow and delivering more convenience for customers.
- Service package options allow customers to pay for multiple services at once, encouraging repeat business and increasing revenue.
- Group offerings let you set up classes or events where you control all the details. Make classes public or keep them private, managing registrations, communication and payments with Thryv’s easy-to-use tools for online scheduling for small business.
Benefits of automated, online scheduling
With an online scheduler, your small business can count on significant benefits.
- More time for other tasks. Online scheduling means you and your staff won’t need to answer the phone or manage customer calendars all day long. You’ll have more time for strategic tasks to grow your business.
- Satisfied customers. Online scheduling is more convenient for customers, resulting in happier clients.
- Reduced no-shows. Online scheduling solutions let customers have more control over when they choose to make appointments, reducing the chances that they’ll need to reschedule. Automated reminders sent by email or text result in fewer no-shows.
- More appointments. Many customers would rather book appointments during their free time after business hours, instead of taking time from their workday to place calls. Online scheduling allows them to book appointments anytime, 24/7 – and lets you win the business of these after-hour schedulers.
- A competitive edge. Fewer than 1 in 4 service-based businesses offer online bookingii, which means you can gain a competitive edge by offering customers this valuable service.
- Better cash flow. With automated scheduling solutions, customers can conveniently pay online before, during or after their appointment, simplifying your invoicing process and helping you get paid faster.
Why choose Thryv?
Thousands of small business owners trust Thryv’s software solutions to help manage their companies more efficiently. All Thryv solutions can be accessed from anywhere, at any time and on any device, giving small business owners more flexibility. Thryv’s do-it-all solution lets owners manage tasks like marketing, invoicing, payment processing, customer communications and CRM from one platform with a single login. Additionally, Thryv solutions integrate easily with dozens of popular business tools like QuickBooks, Gmail, WordPress, PayPal, Square and Stripe, enabling owners and their employees to take advantage of Thryv’s solutions without having to abandon the tools they know and love.
Thryv is the only software of its kind that offers unlimited, 24/7 support from support specialists who have both technical knowledge and small business expertise. Hands-on onboarding and flexible training options help businesses get the most from the Thryv platform starting on day one, while in-app chat features along with tips, videos and guides allow users to learn more about Thryv at their own pace.
i https://www.thryv.com/blog/5-ways-book-appointments-online-services-business/
ii https://www.thryv.com/blog/millennial-online-booking-business/
